Query: Pejoratives for Liberals

Frank Abate abatefr at EARTHLINK.NET
Fri Sep 22 21:40:40 UTC 2000


In my observation, there are compassionate liberals and compassionate
conservatives.  There are also hateful people on both sides.

The term "compassionate conservative" was created for political marketing
(by the Bush campaign, I believe), in an attempt to counter the connotations
that "conservative" has for many.

A dig at liberals from the conservative side is the expression, "the
L-word", in that the formula "[initial letter]-word" indicates that the word
avoided is a "dirty word".

Frank Abate

----- Original Message -----
From: <AAllan at AOL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2000 1:46 PM
Subject: Re: Query: Pejoratives for Liberals


> Interesting observation -
>
> << euphemisms where compassionate conservative won out over other
selections,
> none critical of the looney left >>
>
> There's no question, it seems to me, that ADS members tend to be liberal
in
> their politics; and implausible euphemisms are generally discovered by ADS
> folk in the rhetoric of conservatives and Republicans rather than
elsewhere.
>
> I've noticed this more blatantly in the National Council of Teachers of
> English committee on public doublespeak, whose awards for misleading the
> public almost always are critical of conservative expressions, not liberal
> ones. Quite understandable if you believe truth resides among the liberals
> and duplicity among conservatives.
>
> No great harm, as long as we don't pretend we're neutral observers. And as
> long as we don't apply a political test to members; which we don't. After
> all, as Barry often reminds us, William Safire is an ADS member.
>
> - Allan Metcalf
>



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